April 28, 2008

Ben Franklin Airbath: Philadelphia FMA sampler (mp3s)

Philadelphia's got a lot to be proud of. According to Philly Boy Roy, well there's hoagies, Rocky, Frank's Soda, them Eagles, Dead Milkmen, them Hooters, and laser GG Allin. With Mr. Ziegler's endorsements duly noted, what follows is a sampling - by no means comprehensive - of some of the other Philadelphia artists you'll be able to hear on WFMU's Free Music Archive.

Mp3s from Bad News Bats, Boogie Witch, Clockcleaner, Fursaxa, King Kong Ding Dong, Mincemeat or Tenspeed, Mountain High, The Original Sins, Phil Moore Browne, Sonic Liberation Front, The Strapping Fieldhands and Kurt Vile after the jump. Feel free to suggest more by email or in the comments.

Bad News BatsAn all-female group putting the fun back in doom-garage-punk. Liz McDermott's single-note guitar licks hint at surf rock while Abby Heller-Burnham's warbly synth plays up the monster-mash/sci-fi/outer-space themes. Their 2006 self-titled EP was a split release between Philly labels Badmaster and Hot Dog City. According to HDC headquarters, there's a split 7'' with The Early Graves on the way this spring.

Boogie WitchBy request from Brian Turner. Boogie Witch featured members of the Strapping Fieldhands. Their lone recording is an obliterated live performance at Philadelphia's Silk City, which has since been renovated. It was released as a self-titled CD-R by the Tequila Sunrise record label, also a well-curated record store. Can't find much info about Boogie Witch anywhere, but apparently Tequila Sunrise still has a few of these cdr's in stock. Here's a couple excerpts:

Clockclean erWith John "everyone-in-this-town-can-suck-my-ass" Sharkey at the helm, Philly's most charming 3-piece has expanded their scuzzy auditory assault into
something sludgier, darker, more spread out, and effectively creepy. Their 3rd lp Babylon Rules is loaded with jams, including my favorite Cramps-inspired waterboarding tune "Caliente
Queen". And for something
completely different, try their Wipers-sounding cover of Remo Voor's "Frogrammer". It's available b/w "Early Man" on a 7'' from drummer Richard Charles' Richie
Records // TestosterTunes, home to likeminded local skull musicians such as Homostupids, FNU Ronnies, and the late Violent Students.

FursaxaAfter playing in bands like UN with Marcia Bassett
(Double Leopards), Tara Burke began her solo project Fursaxa at the
turn of the century. Taking a page out of Philadelphia's Ambient
Consortium and the Bardo Pond school of acid-folk space exploration,
Fursaxa also brings to mind elements of religious music, from church choirs to raga drones. Burke employs guitar, casio, Farfisa organ, accordian, dulcimer,
effected vocals, drums, bells, flutes, and the kitchen sink without
ever losing her otherworldly focus. Fursaxa was one of the highlights of Terrastock
6, in Providence's huge reverberant Pell Chafee Performance
Center, and also sound great in these fine locations:

Fursaxa - Tyranny (mp3) Recorded 3.28.02 at the Mercury Lounge, NYC, available on Amulet from Last Visible DogFursaxa - Circle Moon (mp3) Recorded 3.29.02 at the Khyber Pass Phila PA, available on Cult From Moon Mountain cdr

King Kong Ding DongHazy dream-world psych-jams from a Philadelphia supergroup featuring members of A Sunny Day in Glasgow. KKDD self-released their debut EP in 2006, sending it out to radio stations like WFMU and labels like Badmaster Records. Badmaster gave it a well deserved reissue, adding to a roster that also includes Philly's own Tickley Feather, Serpents of Wisdom, Pony Pants and Northern Liberties. Side note: apparently Badmaster's about to expand beyond Philly with split 7''s featuring Todd/Vaz and Night Wounds/Mutators.

Mincemeat or TenspeedThe story goes that Davey Harms wanted to make dance music, and all he had were some guitar pedals. Not even an audio source, just pure audio processing. So he ended up making feedback noise loops that he could somehow dance to. By now he's wrestled with the circuit enough to extract some seriously delicious beats and tones -- see "Accident Prone" and "Circle Crazy" -- which add a whole new dimension to the fuzz. He's touring the coasts now through May 23.

Mountain HighA large group of purportedly pizza-loving rock dudes, including Rodger of Philly's most excellent Hot Dog City label. With chunky riffs and double drums galore, Mountain High exist in the rough territory between progressive and regressive. Their self-recorded debut Wicked Wanderer was released on CD by Hot Dog City and LP from Wantage USA. Their next project? A trilogy titled Man vs. Machine vs. Nature.

The Original SinsJohn "Brother JT" Terlesky has rocked WFMU's live studio manytimes - both solo and with the JT3. He actually hails from Easton, PA, an hour outside of Philly, but for JT, we make the exception. In 2005, he stopped by Brian Turner's show with his reunited stompin garage rock group The Original Sins. Here are a couple samples from that session, recorded 11-18-05 by Gil Shuster and broadcast 12-13-05. You can find the whole thing on JT's website.

Phil Moore BrownePhil Moore Browne is not a person, but a group composed of vocalists/multi-instrumentalists
Yung Tung and Yung Spit, bassist
Yung Stroke, drummer Yung Skins, and keyboardist/programmer Yung Touch.
The music's simultaneously soulful, spastic, poetic, and very hard to
describe. They call it Ziggaboo. In 2005, Phil Moore Browne released their debut album, Motel Moore: The Lobbies, but they warn on their myspace that "you might need to hold a knife to their throat to get one". In 2006 Hot Dog City released the paired down, more readily available Baggage Smasher EP:

Sonic Liberation FrontLed by percussionist, composer and producer Kevin Diehl, the SLF mixes Afro-Cuban rhythm with free-jazz horns, adding other elements and electronics as necessary. After their 2001 self-released debut Water and Stone, Philadelphia's High Two Recordings released 2004's Ashe A Go-Go and 2006's Change Over Time. High Two has also released a range of material including pioneering free jazz pianist Dave Burrell, His Name Is Alive's tribute to Marion Brown, and Brian McTear's Bitter Bitter Weeks.

Strapping FieldhandsThe main project of the aforementioned Boogie Witch. They've recorded for Shangri-La and Philly's own Siltbreeze (who released, among other things, 1994's Jersey-Devil-themed, Mike-Rep-fucked-with In The Pineys 10''). Drummer Jeff Werner runs the group's label, Omphalos Records, while Jacy Webster (vocals and guitar) owns the Philadelphia Record Exchange. The Fieldhands proper are currently on hiatus, but they do have loose plans to reform in the near future. In the meantime, they've been working on a side project called Sparrow Steeple.

Kurt VileIf you're seeing a show in Philadelphia, there's a good
chance that "Philly's Constant Hitmaker" Kurt Vile will be on the bill, either playing a
stripped down solo set or fronting the double-floor-tom-toting Violators. A founding guitarist in The War On Drugs, Vile's own music breathes folksy directness and classic rock sensibility into a trippy psychedelic bedroom pop environment. Like Ariel Pink with more lyrical focus and flow. After releasing a handful of homemade cd-r's, Kurt Vile's
debut cd on Gulcher -- aptly titled Constant Hitmaker -- compiles home recordings from 2003-2007.

all mp3's posted with permission of the artist and label. All under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 3.0 license, except: "Freeway", "Space Forklift", posted with permission of the artist and label, and "Tyranny" and "Ben Franklin Airbath" posted with artist's permission. Cheesesteak hat photo from costumecraze.com.

Thanks to the artists and labels for putting out the good music and letting us share it with you.

This Free Music Archive sounds like a great project, but are you sure you know what you are doing using the Non-Commercial clause on the license? It means that "music venues" and anyone using your portals and "building communities" will have to operate as a non-profit. This may indeed be what you want, just giving you a heads up about this issue. Personally I dislike the NC, and feel that SA alone does what is needed to prevent commercial abuse, while encouraging use. Viz. it allows people working to "build communities" to cover their costs or even make a profit, while giving power to the community to prevent abuse of that by the share alike clause.

David,
Thanks for bringing this up. We feel the non-commercial clause is in artits/labels' best interest -- it ensures that their work won't pop up on a Virgin Mobile billboard in Australia, for example. The ad-supported world is not something that all artists want to be associated with -- at least not by default. And if they're going to "sell out" for a cause they deem worthy, they should get paid for it! Creative Commons' Non-Commercial clause doesn't prevent artists or labels from making their music available commercially, (whether via an ad-supported "community-building" site or an ad for soap); they are free to do so on their own through separate agreements.

The "freedom defined" article you linked to seems really biased towards wanting to see "the business models around free content evolve". We just can't assume that artists are ok with these business models by default, though we'll certainly make that option available.

Great! Glad to hear, that of course you have thought about it, and have a very clear handle on the issues.

Advertising is the big stumbling block for musicians especially, but all creators to some degree, in accepting the trade-offs that dropping NC brings. More than the financial aspect (after all, appearing before the masses, however you do it, brings sales) the unwanted association factor of Nabisco, Virgin, etc. using your work is, as you mentioned, very scary. If you are offering the option of a non NC license to the copyright holder when you are talking with them initially, then good on you. And I certainly didn't mean to imply that it is up to you to decide the license. But you do have quite a bit of power in bringing this (probably) new idea to these people.

I think your project is likely to be a great success, even "limited" to the world of the WMFU's. Just not a take over the music business and change the world kind of success, which I think requires a true copyleft :) Could be a great first step however!

Seriously though, I love what you all have been doing with this blog, and it looks like it is just gona get better, thanks a lot!

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